Most new consumer portable communications equipment utilizes some type of a vibrator mechanism to alert the user of incoming data, messages, or calls. The vibrator, upon activation, generates vibrations which are transferred to the communication device housing causing the housing to shake thereby alerting the user. The mounting scheme of a vibrator into a portable communication device, such as a portable radio, largely determines its shake effectiveness. It is desirable that the vibrator be mounted as rigidly as possible within the radio housing so that maximum shake is achieved. As portable radios become smaller and more compact, it becomes critical that the vibrator assembly take up as little space as possible and be easy to assemble.
Currently, there are several widely used mounting schemes for vibrator assemblies. One mounting scheme mounts the vibrator to a printed circuit (PC) board within the radio housing. However, attaching the vibrator directly to the PC board usually requires some type of bracket reflowed onto the PC board to retain the vibrator or alternatively requires reflowing the vibrator directly to the PC board. There are also prior art vibrator mounting schemes which mount the vibrator directly to the radio housing, however, these schemes typically require the use of a separate boot mounted about the vibrator which can cause assembly stack up problems. Both of these mounting approaches have the further disadvantage of taking up large areas of internal housing space and incur some loss of vibration due to inefficient transmission of the shake to the outer radio housing.
Accordingly, there is a need for a vibrator assembly which effectively transfers the shake of the vibrator to the radio housing. Effective use of space within the radio housing as well as ease of assembly are also important parameters to address in any vibrator assembly.